Clinging on

It sat dormant through that long, long cold winter: a little bud of barely alive cells waiting for the preprogrammed set of conditions to trigger it into life. It survived the frost and the snow, the beaks of hungry birds, the fungi and insects seeking that little spark of life to rewire its proteins, to guzzle down its carbohydrates, to live while it dies. It survived all that and then pulled off a successful launch - a dance of division, differentiation and growth, building structure, coordinating with all the other outposts on the winter dead column of wood, turning it back into a tree. And then the wind blew at just the wrong angle, or an idle hand plucked it and the wind took it and here it rests, still alive, still carrying on its complex organic chemistry....but doomed, as it always was.